“The Office” — Beach Games
Fire walk with her.
Two items in relation to last night’s episode of The Office, which I shall detail in convenient number form only to get lazy halfway through and switch to letters:
1) Super-sizing. The Office was 40 minutes (or 30 minutes sans commercials) again last night. I suspect this is because NBC* is so hard up for programming they actually don’t have a single show that can fill out their Thursday line-up — or at least they don’t have a show that can get even half as many viewers as Earl or The Office. NBC probably thinks of this as a massive problem (which makes sense as the network seems to be hemmoraging viewers at record levels).
It’s not. There’s more after the break…
If anyone at the network had any sense whatsoever they would cancel the dreaded Scrubs and comprise Thursday nights of 40-minute episodes of My Name Is Earl, The Office and 30 Rock permanently. It’s a win-win situation. The network doesn’t have to develop new programming that will be inevitably canceled because of low ratings, and we, the viewers, can get comedies that actually have a full thirty minutes to tell their stories.
Plus, everyone who watches these shows is using a DVR so it hardly matters that The Office, for example, would start at 8:40pm. Schedules are increasingly irrelevant. Just make the programming available. The audience will find it (most of the time).
B. The unmistakable appeal of Pam Beesly. Now, this point might be split down gender lines, but I think this episode tipped things significantly in my favor. Everyone loves Jim. Jim is the cool-guy everyman. He’s the one person in the office you might actually want to hang out with, largely because he’s the one person in the office who isn’t completely insane. Yes, Jim is an enjoyable presence, but he would be nothing without the presence of Ms. Beesly.
Maybe it’s a chicken and egg argument, but Pam’s comedic subtlety is far more emotionally resonant than Jim’s cute mugging. Look, the two are star-crossed lovers, destined to get together once the show has lost all of its edge, but it’s Pam that makes Jim a better person, not the other way around.
This was evident in last night’s final scene when Pam gave her “I’m going to be honest” speech — a speech that kind of felt like it came more from the writers need to hit plot points before the season ends than something the character would actually do, had it not been for Jenna Fischer’s brilliant delivery which was as funny as it was devastating. Jim needs Pam in order to be something more than an affable wooden plank with good hair. Though Pam is a survivor. She doesn’t need Jim, she wants Jim — a key difference.
Now the point could be made that last season Jim was the one who put everything on the line by expressing his love for Pam on Casino Night, and it may have made a good storybook romance, but there’s something kind of cowardly in spilling your heart to someone right on the cusp of the person’s wedding. The Office is great because its humor is based in the real world. Pam wasn’t going to run away with him. Things don’t work out that way. It’s far more risky to tell people the truth when the stakes aren’t quite as high. You can’t hide behind the moment itself. It’s also a little more intense when “the other girl” is sitting right there.
It also doesn’t hurt that she represents the embodiment of the girl most desired by those people who have trouble getting girls (i.e. male television fans).
Viva Pam!
May 14th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Yeah- Pam’s cool… But I was waiting for you to make a comment about when Michael filled in the flinstone tune with the “Wiiillllllmmma” at the end. Oh MAN that was awesome.